Girl Talk
by AquaSox
Summary: Spoilers for “The Pain in the Heart.” Angela and Brennan have an interesting discussion about exactly what Brennan saw when she interrupted Booth's bath time. Next chapter is finally up - takes place after "The Man in the Outhouse."
1. Girl Talk

Spoilers for "The Pain in the Heart." Takes place sometime during "The Pain in the Heart" but before they learn Zack is the apprentice….sad times.

Angela and Brennan discuss Brennan's actions upon learning Booth wasn't dead. This picks up in the middle of their conversation where Brennan is about to finish telling Angela about storming into Booth's bath time.

My biggest goal was to keep these two in character. Given the subject matter it was a difficult task. This one is for pure fun!!

I don't own Bones. I also can't believe I'm going to be out of the country when Season Four premiers in August.

Reviews are neat!!

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"…_and he stood up, Angela, irrationally agitated about how he took a bullet for me and that should prove how much he trusts me and excuse his lack of…"_

"_Wait a minute. He stood up? Like the full Monty?"_

"_Ange, I don't know what that means. So then I left. But not before telling him that I found his lack of Puritan modesty very refreshing."_

"_I'm sure you did Sweetie," _Angela stated with her amused and knowing grin.

"_What? No I just meant…Ange stop." _Brennan tried to clarify but decided to continue her intended train of thought.

"_I guess I shouldn't be this angry. He did include me on the list to be informed. How was he supposed to know that Sweets would decide…"_

"_Honey," _Angela again interrupted. "_I have to ask. Was it?"_

_Was what?_

_"Was it, you know? I mean does he wear that ridiculous belt buckle for a reason or is he just trying to compensate for his shortcomings?" _

Dr. Brennan furrowed her brow in a moment of confusion until she realized what her best friend was referring to. Her flush red cheeks were enough to give Angela the information she wanted.

"_Ange, discussing the aesthetics of Booth's reproductive organs isn't relevant to whether or not I should still be angry at him for not telling me he wasn't dead."_

Angela gave Brennan a knowing look. She also knew her friend was making her best effort to be platonic and waited for her to continue.

"B_ut from what I saw he would have no problem addressing the needs of any desiring female." _Brennan continued trying to hard to sound objective.

_"I knew it!" _Angela squealed, giggling like her high school best friend had just told her she made out with the quarterback under bleachers.

_"Sweetie, what are you going to do about this? I mean let's face it. You've graduated from enough pent up sexual energy to power a small Midwestern town to powering planet Earth and the object of your affection just gave you the full frontal…"_

"_Ange!! Booth is my partner. He's not an object of my affection. I mean I do care for him but we're partners."_

"_Yes, you said that, _Angela stated sarcastically_. Are you telling me that seeing your Knight in shining FBI standard-issue body armor all wet and completely…well... without his armor or underwear for that matter had no effect on you whatsoever?"_

Brennan gave Angela a frustrated glance, but the look on her friend's face told her that she wasn't going to get out of answering this question.

"_He was wearing that asinine beer hat, but maybe I couldn't deny that there were some natural biological urges that any woman would posses upon seeing a well-structured male, like Booth. His above average reproductive organs are certainly appeasing to a woman's naturally occurring sex drive. Sometimes maybe I am sexually attracted to him, but it's a natural occurrence for the survival of the species. The fact that his penis is definitely above average in size means nothing to me. We're part…"_

"…p_artners, Sweetie, I know..."_

Angela was completely ready to interrupt her best friend's tired excuses and politely inform her that it was time her and Booth stop dancing around the inevitable. But she never got the chance. A familiar voice from the man standing in the doorway behind Brennan's couch made a sound and cleared his throat.

"_Uh-hem…Ladies?"_


	2. The truth no longer unsaid

As requested, a follow-up chapter.

God bless Angela - one of the best secondary characters on television.

I don't own Bones. If I did, all the people that make this show would never have a vacation so we could have Bones all year long.

I'm not completely happy with this, but I can't really pinpoint why.

Reviews of constructive criticism and/or compliments are always a wonderful sight!

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Booth picked up his pace as he tried to catch Angela heading toward her office door.

He had pretended he hadn't heard any of their conversation in Bones' office. He let their inappropriate conversation slide with a few seconds of awkward silence, a boosted ego and the amusement of seeing the look of panic as both their heads snapped toward him when he made them aware of his presence.

He could tell even Bones was embarrassed, but he quickly changed the subject displaying the updated FBI forensic file that had brought him to the doorway.

But after reliving their words for the past couple hours he was almost giggly with confidence and decided it was time to do some old-fashioned teasing of Brennan's best friend.

Realizing no one was around as he approached Angela, Booth called out from just behind her,

"_So…Knight in shining FBI standard…"_

"_Save it!"_ Angela spun on her heels throwing up a stop sign close to his face as she interrupted.

"_It was locker room talk Booth, nothing more and you're just fishing for information on the real issue."_

Booth crossed his arms and took a defensive stance ready to set Angela straight, but she had had enough from this man after years of denying feelings for her best friend and the whole fake death fiasco. So before he could say anything, she continued.

"_Don't even try to play defensive with me, Agent Cocky."_

Booth flinched a little at his new nickname. But his hesitance in how to respond gave Angela enough time to begin to verbalize what has long been on her mind.

"_I know what you and Brennan have with each other. It is special, even if it never goes beyond being partners. _

_She bursts into your home, your bathroom uninvited and you weren't even uncomfortable enough to see it necessary to cover yourself with a towel." _

_You don't want to do anything to lose that," _Angela said with a small laugh, knowing that "that" meant much more than Booth not being too concerned about letting his partner see him in his birthday suit.

Booth gave her the deer in headlights look, contemplating how his attempt to further embarrass Angela turned into this conversation. Angela took his stunned silence as an opportunity to keep going.

"_I know you're terrified," _she told him, her voice now getting closer to a whisper._ "Terrified that if you even approach the idea of becoming more than partners the FBI could take away what you have now. But mostly, you're terrified that she might reject you or it might not work out and you'd lose her as a partner and a friend. _

_And we understand. It's why we all watch you two dance around each other and none of us say anything. Hell, even Zack knows what you two have and we both know how socially inhibited Zack is."_

As a look of fear briefly crossed Booth's face, Angela thought maybe she'd said enough. But she quickly decided she wasn't ready to give Booth the chance to yet again deny the truth.

"_I love Bren to pieces, but when it comes to feelings and emotion she has trouble catching up to her own reality. She knows she's connected to you, but I'm not sure she understands yet exactly how powerful that connection is. Or if she does realize it, I'm certain she has no idea what to do with it. _

_But deep down, you know Booth. You read people. It's what you do. And you know her feelings. Her connection to you runs deeper than it ever has for anyone. You realize it. All of your squints realize it. But you know her even better than us, and you also understand you can't rush her. It's driving you and us completely mad, but we all play along."_

_You should have seen her when she believed you were dead. You thought she was cold and distant when you first met. It was as if every emotion she ever had for you or for anyone died with you. Three years ago, she was a very emotionally detached person, but I'd never seen her that detached from everyone. It scared me. I don't ever want to see her like that again."_

Booth inhaled sharply and Angela wasn't sure what he would do next after she had just unloaded the hard truth he already knew but probably wasn't prepared to hear. They both furrowed their brow and stood in a few seconds of awkward silence. Angela certain Booth was going to continue his defensive facade that they were "just partners."

Booth however, was contemplating whether it might be time that he let someone see his own reality.

A small smile slowly crept on Booth face when he finally spoke.

"_You know Ange, sometimes I think you're much more qualified at this whole psychology thing than Sweets."_

With that Booth began walking away.

_"When she's ready, I'll figure out what to do_," he said heading toward the lab platform.

_"I know you will…_" she returned, shaking her head and saying the last part under her breath, "…_Agent Cocky"_


	3. AN 2

Hello Everyone,

As you can tell by the posting of two author's notes with two chapters, I'm a talk to the audience kind of writer.

I want to thank everyone who read this piece and especially everyone who responded and reviewed.

I don't think I'm finished with this story yet, but I wanted to let everyone know it may be a while before I post another chapter. I'd like to keep this one in cannon unless the writers actually do bless us with a scene in the upcoming season where Angela lets Booth have it. Most likely, I won't be updating this until next season begins, but you never know what idea might pop into my head.

I've also made some minor updates to the two existing chapters. Nothing major, but if you reread, you might notice a few tweaks in the wording here and there. What can I say, I'm a perfectionist. If anyone else sees something that needs to be corrected, please let me know. It's often a lot harder to catch typos and misspellings in your own work.

Thanks again! Getting up the courage to post my own writing was scary, but now I'm glad I did. I appreciate your encouragement.


	4. Angela's Advice

This chapter is a late follow-up for this story and I'm sure this chapter will take this story AU.

After watching Brennan's moment of realization in Sweets' office at the end of "The Man in the Outhouse," I couldn't help but write this. This story assumes everything we've seen on TV adding the events in my previous chapters and takes place one day after "The Man in the Outhouse."

Booth and Brennan becoming a couple is a touchy subject for me. It's going to happen, we all know it's going to happen, but I think it will be much more difficult for both characters than everyone's fantasy of them backing each other against the wall to "do it" and living happily ever after.

Nothing is ever easy between them.

I don't own Bones and I definitely wouldn't want to be charged with the task of writing Brennan and Booth's get together scene hoping to make every viewer happy. To the actual writers of the show: Good luck with that!

These next chapters will follow just one of my takes of how it could happen, and not necessarily what we'd all like to see.

A special thanks to the show "Friends" for letting my version of Angela steal a little dialogue from them.

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"Ange I need to ask your advice." Brennan flatly stated as the rest of the squints left her office after their wrap-up meeting regarding the latest case.

Angela allowed the team to finish making their way out and promptly shut Brennan's office door. "Whoa sweetie, this sounds serious. Are you ok?"

"Fine." Brennan stated quickly calming herself with a stoic look of determination. "I've decided I want to pursue a relationship with Booth that would be romantically satisfying."

Angela almost dropped the pad in her had as her eyebrow shot up to the ceiling, staring at her best friend and waiting for her to continue.

"What Ange?" Brennan said as she grunted. "Why aren't you saying anything? I thought I'd be protecting myself from your squeals of excitement when I told you my intentions. I can remember very clearly you pushing me to pursue Booth romantically when we first met."

Angela tilted her head, scrunching her nose a little as she digested this new piece of information from her best friend. It wasn't so much what Brennan was saying that was making her uneasy, but the way that she said it. "I do still want you two to get together, Sweetie, but it's not often your best friend tells you they want to date someone they've been in love with since, well forever, and they make it sound so clinical. Plus, you two have spent so long in the friend zone. I'd almost given up on you ever moving out."

Brennan's expression turned to confusion as she tried to decipher Angela's latest allegory. "There's no such thing as "the friend zone" Ange. "And I never said anything about being in love."

"Sweetie, you two are co-mayors of the zone," Angela stated with as much sarcasm and annoyance she could muster while choosing to ignore Brennan's latest attempt at denial.

"I don't know what that means"

Angela sighed and decided she would elaborate. "You already have a well developed relationship with him, Bren. Going out on your first date will be more like going out on your 20th"

"I still don't know what that means."

"It means, sweetie, that this isn't some random guy you met at a bar and decided to go on a date with. This is Booth. You two already have a surrogate relationship and pursuing something more will be, …" Angela paused to consider her next word carefully,…."complicated," she finally said.

"Ange, I didn't ask you to tell me how complicated things are going to be. Booth and I are both mature adults capable of handling any awkward feelings that may develop. And why does everyone keep saying we have a surrogate relationship? I just need your advice on how to let him know that I'm interested in furthering our relationship in that capacity."

"When exactly did you decide to pursue this, Bren?"

"After Jason and Mark ended their relationship with me, I realized that in the best interest of everyone's feelings, monogamy might be the best way to satisfy one's needs for intellectual and sexual companionship. When I considered this further, I realized that Booth is the only man I've known that I believe could satisfy me fully in terms of a conversational setting and, although I have no direct knowledge of his skills, Booth physique and appearance lead me to conclude he would have no problems meeting my sexual needs."

Angela couldn't believe what she was hearing. She'd actually done it. Her best friend had taken her chance to finally admit her feelings for a certain FBI Agent she'd been drawn to since they met and turned it into what sounded like a science experiment.

While it was true she wanted this to happen, had been waiting for one her two stubborn friends to make the first move, after hearing Brennan talk about it so clinically, Angela wasn't convinced this was such a good idea. She wondered if Brennan had even considered she could end up hurting the man that was so desperately in love with her.

Brennan's next words pulled Angela out of her thoughts.

"So how do I tell him?"

Angela reluctantly realized that Brennan's mind was made up and there was no negotiating with her best friend once she'd made up her mind about something. And after everything that had happen over the past few months, Booth's fake death, Zack becoming a killer and her and Hodgins break-up, things couldn't get any worse. Could they?

"Make a gesture Bren. Do something just for him you've never done before," she finally suggested, still not so excited about this idea.

Brennan carefully considered Angela's words before her best friend continued.

"But before you jump in, Sweetie, just please be aware that if this relationship that is to be romantically satisfying doesn't work out, it could change things between you two and not for the better."

Brennan barely heard Angela's last words and she certainly wasn't paying attention having already realized her next move.

"I've gotta go, Ange." Brennan blurted out grabbing her jacket and purse, fumbling for her keys.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Angela demanded putting her hand on her hip.

Brennan took off toward the door, looking behind her and shouting on her way out,

"My first move, Ange. I've figured out what I need to do."

"Glad I could help," Angela yelled blowing hair off her brow. "Just please be careful, sweetie," she said more under her breath, "for everyone's sake."

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**More to come soon!! **Reviews make every writer happy :-)


	5. A Night at the Hoover Building

After a stop to pickup takeout from what she knew was Booth's favorite Chinese restaurant, Brennan burst into the Hoover Building making a beeline for Booth's office.

Thankfully, Booth had recently managed to talk Cullen into granting her security clearance for the building since she and Booth did often interrogate subjects together. As she exchanged polite hellos with the security guard, Brennan wondered to herself why Booth ever allowed her to talk to suspects in the first place. She certainly didn't posses his gift for reading people. Temperance Brennan knew she excelled in many things, but even she wasn't naïve enough to believe that social skills were one of them. Yet over time, it seemed Booth seemed to trust that she'd know how to act and what to say. The thought of this made her smile as she made her way to the elevator that would take her to Booth's office.

It was getting late in the evening, close to 9 p.m., but earlier Booth had mentioned he'd probably be stuck in his office catching up on paperwork until midnight.

Dr. Brennan had made up her mind on what she wanted and despite the feeling of nervousness in the pit of her stomach, she was moving though the building's now empty halls like a woman who couldn't be deterred.

"Booth? Hey Booth," Brennan questionably shouted as she walked into his office door hiding the takeout bags as best should could behind her back. "Have you had dinner?"

Without even looking up, Booth answered in a rather grumpy tone, "Hey Bones, no and I'm starved, but I shouldn't really leave until I finish up a few more things. If you give me another couple hours I can take you to a really late dinner."

"I brought you takeout!" Brennan said almost beaming holding up the plastic bags. "Well, us, I brought us takeout. I thought you might be hungry and I could keep you company and maybe help you catch up with your workload."

Booth looked up at a smiling Brennan with a quizzical look on his face. "You brought me takeout?" You've never done that before. Bones"

"I know," she replied looking down at the floor. "I'm sorry, I know you've done it for me lots of times. I was talking to Ange and I realized you do things just to be nice to me all the time and I don't do that for you enough so this was the first thing I thought of for….

"Bones," Booth interrupted, 'You show me you care for me all the time, you just do it in different ways that's all. But this, well this is really nice. Thank you Bones."

Brennan finally took her cue to come closer and walked toward her partner's desk. "You're welcome," Brennan grinned as she took in the clutter of files and paperwork taking up the vast majority of space on her partner's usually clean desk.

She handed her partner one of the bags of food. Is there somewhere we can eat?" "Your desk is a mess and I don't think there is room for our food."

Booth let out a small chuckle. "My desk is messy because I've been doing a lot of work Bones."

"I know Booth you don't have to get defensive, I was stating the fact that we might need to find another location to eat."

"There's my Bones," Booth said breaking a smile. "I'm starving. We can use the conference room,"

Brennan turned in front of Booth as he got up from his office chair and placed his hand on the small of her back to lead her in the direction of the conference room. At the warmth of his familiar touch, Brennan turned her head around and smiled at her partner. Booth returned the gesture as they walked down the office hall in silence, the underlying awkwardness of the moment not lost on either of them.

"Booth can I ask you a favor?" Brennan asked as they entered the office and she began placing their food on the table

"Sure Bones."

"If you had to tell me something that might hurt my feelings in the short term, but knew I'd be better off knowing in the long run, Promise me, you'd go ahead and tell me?"

Booth's brow furrowed and he got a quizzical look on his face.

"Wait. Why would I tell you something to hurt your feelings?"

Seeming to change her train of thought, Brennan continued.

"I've decided I want to pursue a monogamous relationship."

"I know, Bones. You told me last night at Sweets' office. You think I might have something to say that would hurt your feelings because of that? I think it's great you've realized that you might be happier pursuing the one person that's right for you than trying to find satisfaction with multiple partners. I think you should find a guy you want to pursue and, most importantly, knows how lucky he is just to have you at his side and take him out on a date. Or get even more outside your comfort zone and let him take you out on a date," Booth added bemusingly wiggling his eyebrows.

"Can we consider this," Brennan waved her arm over the food and the takeout, "a date, Booth?"

His first bite of food almost inside his mouth, Booth froze.


End file.
